Problems and Purpose

State Question 820 was designed to expand marijuana access to Oklahomans over the age of 21. The purpose of this ballot initiative was to give Oklahomans direct agency over the approval of recreational marijuana instead of relying on officials to act on the desires of constituents.

Background History and Context

Oklahoma has an extensive history of using the state initiative process to impact policy. Oklahaoma has voted on more than 400 state questions, but fewer than 20 state questions have been placed on the ballot via citizen-led groups. Of that 20, only four passed [1].

Oklahoma also has a recent history featuring marijuana policy. On June 26, 2018, Oklahomans approved a law via state initiative process that allowed marijuana to be grown, sold and used for medicinal purposes [2]. This was the 788th state question that was filed with the State of Oklahoma[3]. The approval of medical marijuana created an industry within Oklahoma for the licensing and growing of marijuana. According to Pew Research, Oklahoma has the highest number of dispensaries per capita of any state[4]. The resulting policy of the approval of state question 788 was surprisingly very liberal with few bureaucratic roadblocks to obtaining a dispensary license and anyone with doctor’s approval being able to obtain a medical marijuana card [5]. With an increase in access to marijuana, some Oklahomans felt that the next natural step was recreational marijuana legalization.

The ballot initiative to legalize recreational marijuana was the 820th state question filed with Oklahoma and the 434th citizen-led initiative filed with Oklahoma [3].

Organizing, Supporting, and Funding Entities

Yes on 820-Oklahomans for Sensible Marijuana Laws (OSML) was the organization leading the campaign to approve state question 820. This organization was responsible for gathering the necessary number of signatures to place the state question on the ballot. Yes on 820-OSML tried to position itself with the criminal reform organizations in Oklahoma. Yes on 820-OSML marched in the MLK Jr. March for Justice and participated at the Juneteenth Festival[6].

Yes on 820-OSML was hiring field organizers on November 1, 2022[7].

Yes on 820-Oklahomans for Sensible Marijuana Laws (OSML) was also the political action committee that raised the money to support state question 820. Yes on 820-OSML raised $4.8 million[8]. Major contributors to the OSML political action committee included Drug Action Policy out of New York, The Just Trust for Action out of North Carolina, and United Food and Commercial Workers International Union out of Washington D.C. The American Civil Liberties Union provided in kind contributions like texting tools, website support, and staff[9].

In opposition, Protect our Kids NO 820 raised $273,180. The oppositional coalition consisted of the Greater OKC Chamber of Commerce, the Oklahoma Farm Bureau, the State Chamber of Oklahoma, and the Oklahoma Faith Coalitions [10].

Participant Recruitment and Selection

Voting on the state initiative was open to all registered voters in Oklahoma. Yes on 820-OSML went around the state to gather signatures. The organization left petitions at various dispensaries for customers to sign [6]. As a result, Yes on 820-OSML collected more than 164,000 signatures.

When enough signatures were gathered, Yes on 820-OSML worked to persuade the larger population of Oklahoma to approve the initiative by phone banking, running advertisements, hosting town hall meetings4, and participating in a live town hall on a local news station [6][11]. When the initiative was voted on, 566,362 total voters participated in the election1[12]. Both voting and signing the petition was self-selected, because no one is required to vote or sign the petition.

However, only those who are registered to vote in Oklahoma may sign the petition or vote in the election[13].

Methods and Tools Used

The citizen initiative method was used to get State Question 820 on the ballot [14]. In the process of gathering signatures, organizers or volunteers in favor of state question 820 were canvassing with signers. The use of canvassing to gather signatures for a state initiative is common. When it was announced that the question made it on the ballot, it seems their strategy shifted from gathering signatures to trying to register more voters [6]. Yes on 820-OSML also shifted to larger dialogues like town halls[15]. The initial signature drive spread awareness and allowed for more detailed, intimate conversations. The shift to larger crowds allowed for information to more quickly spread but may have prevented more in-depth conversations with potential voters.

The method of citizen initiative was appealing to organizers. Oklahoma has a hyper-conservative government. If a recreational marinjuana law was introduced in the legislature, it is unlikely that legislators would approve it. The citizen initiative allowed citizens to directly decide if Oklahoma should legalize recreational marijuana. Yes on 820-OSML wanted to directly impact policy without using their legislators. However, this method requires much more effort. If organizers of Yes on 820-OSML wanted to use legislators, they would only have to convince dozens of people to support the measure. Because Yes on 820-OSML decided to use the initiative process, Yes on 820-OSML had to convince thousands of Oklahomans to approve the initiative.

What Went On: Process, Interaction, and Participation

Attorneys for 820-OSML submitted a draft of the initiative on January 4, 2022, to the Oklahoma Secretary of State. The Oklahoma Secretary of State published the initiative in local newspapers to allow for Constitutional challenges on January 7, 2022. There was a challenge filed against the initiative on January 24, 2022. On March 28, 2022, the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled that the initiative was constitutional and allowed the initiative to proceed. As a result, the Oklahoma Secretary of State said that gathering signatures could begin on May 3, 2022. The number of signatures required to be on the ballot was 94,911[16].

Yes on 820-OSML began gathering signatures on May 3, 2022. They began canvassing in an effort to gather signatures and hosted town halls. On May 26, 2022, Yes on 820-OSML announced they were traveling to twenty-one cities in five days [6]. Yes on 820-OSML continued to gather signatures until July 5, 2022. On that day, Yes on 820-OSML submitted 118 boxes full of signatures to the Oklahoma Secretary of State. On August 22, 2024, the Oklahoma Secretary of State submitted to the Oklahoma Supreme Court that 117,257 signatures were verified [16].

There was a delay in signature verification, related to how the verification process worked. This process was shaped by a 2020 law, “House Bill 3826,” which gave Oklahoma’s Secretary of State the power to purchase software to carry out their duties including counting and verifying signatures. Under this authority, the Secretary of State contracted Western Petition Systems to verify the signatures [17]. On September 21, 2022, Yes on 820-OSML asked the Oklahoma Supreme Court to place the initiative on the November ballot. The Oklahoma Supreme Court unanimously ruled that there was no legal way to mandate the question be set for the November 2022 ballot [18]. As a result, On October 18, 2022, Governor Stitt ordered a special election for State Question 820 [16]. The only thing on the ballot for the special election was State Question 820.

Once the signatures were verified, the Secretary published full-text copies of the initiative on August 31, 2022, in local newspapers around the state. This allows for a more informed public voting bloc. The full text copies included the options as they would be presented on the ballot: “Yes: a vote in favor of the measure” or “No: vote is against this measure”[16].

State Question 820 failed on March 7, 2023 with 61.67% of voters against the proposal. The statewide turnout of the election was 25.37% . Not a single county in Oklahoma had a majority yes vote[12]. Comparatively, the November 8, 2022 election had a 50.35% turnout[19]. Local news organizations, like KOCO, in Oklahoma communicated the failure of the initiative [20].

Influence, Outcomes, and Effects

Because the initiative failed, it had no impact on Oklahoma recreational marijuana policy. Recreational marijuana in Oklahoma remains illegal. There have been no initiative attempts to address recreational marijuana policy since the failure of State Question 820.

Despite the initiative’s failure, organizers in support of 820 are hopeful that the vote will spur on a broader conversation about criminal justice issues related to low-level marijuana crimes. [21].

Analysis and Lessons Learned

The failure of State Question 820 happened in a larger context of conservative states rejecting the expansion of marijuana policy. Arkansas, North Dakota, and South Dakota rejected similar initiatives in 2022 [22]. However, other states, like Missouri, have also expanded marijuana access using a ballot initiative [23]. A ballot initiative to expand access to marijuana has worked in other state such as California.

Because of the signature verification delay, the initiative process for State Question 820 was much longer than a typical initiative. There was almost a year between the time that Yes on 820-OSML started gathering signatures and the day that the initiative was voted on. It was challenging for organizers in favor of State Question 820 to keep voters engaged for that long.

The failure of State Question 820 also demonstrates the effect of unintended consequences of policy. To speed up signature verification the process, the Secretary contracted out the verification process which ironically slowed the process. The slow process directly impacted the citizens by determining when the question could be placed on the ballot. Additionally, because the special election was in March, this could result in a decrease in voter turnout in the special election. We know that “off-cycle elections” (like the election for State Question 820) have lower voter turnout than on-cycle elections [24].

More than 60% of voters who participated in the special election voted against the initiative [12]. Organizers that worked or volunteered for Yes on 820-OSML had to be disappointed that the initiative failed, but the majority of Oklahomans voters were satisfied with the failure. If future organizers were to use this failure as a case study, they could explore different techniques to keep voters engaged. Yes on 820-OSML had the opportunity with such an extended campaign timeline to try new things. The campaign could have distributed voter guides like the ones California distributed in California’s successful recreational marijuana ballot initiative. This voter guide featured an estimate of revenue as a result of the approval of recreational marijuana [25].

See Also

Participedia entries on Yes on 820-OSML & Protect our Kids NO 820.

References

[1] Rausch, J. D. (n.d.). Initiative and Referendum. Oklahoma Historical Society. https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry?entry=IN025

[2] Oklahoma Secretary of State. (2018, July 5). State Question 788. https://www.sos.ok.gov/documents/questions/788.pdf

[3] questions. (n.d.). Www.sos.ok.gov; Oklahoma Secretary of State. https://www.sos.ok.gov/gov/questions.aspx

[4] Chapekis, A., & Shah, S. (2024, February 29). Most Americans now live in a legal marijuana state – and most have at least one dispensary in their county. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/02/29/most-americans-now-live-in-a-legal-mariju ana-state-and-most-have-at-least-one-dispensary-in-their-county/

[5] Murphy, S. (2020, March 7). Pot entrepreneurs flocking to the Bible Belt for low taxes. AP News. https://apnews.com/article/marijuana-us-news-ap-top-news-ar-state-wire-health-58daeb2ed45271 0e03ea4542976a620a

[6] Yes on 820 (@yeson820). Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/yeson820/

[7] Yes on 820 (@yeson820) Instagram. Hiring Field Organizers. https://www.instagram.com/p/CkwJZ8-ulJQ/

[8] Committee Financial Summary of Yes on 820. (2023). Ok.gov. https://guardian.ok.gov/PublicSite/SearchPages/CommitteeFinancialSummary.aspx?Comm=107 22

[9] View Filing 1st Quarter Report. (2023). Ok.gov. http://guardian.ok.gov/PublicSite/SearchPages/FilingAmendmentSelect.aspx?FilingID=209131

[10] View Filing Quarter report of Protect our Kids No 820. (2023). Ok.gov. http://guardian.ok.gov/PublicSite/SearchPages/FilingAmendmentSelect.aspx?FilingID=209589

[11] Tulsa's NewsChannel 8. (2023, March 1). Live Show | State Question 820: NewsChannel 8 live town hall. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yW1W-4E7aa8

[12] OK Election Results March 7, 2023 (2024). Okelections.gov. https://results.okelections.gov/OKER/?elecDate=20230307

[13] Petition Process. (n.d.). Www.sos.ok.gov; Oklahoma Secretary of State. https://www.sos.ok.gov/gov/petition_process.aspx

[14] Press Release. (n.d.) https://cdn.ymaws.com/okpress.com/resource/resmgr/state_question_analysis/sq_analy

sis_9p.pdf

[15] Yes on 820 (@yeson820) Instagram. State Question 820 Town Hall. https://www.instagram.com/p/CkwJZ8-ulJQ/

[16] Oklahoma Secretary of State. (2023, March 24). State Question 820. https://www.sos.ok.gov/documents/questions/820.pdf

[17] Monies, P. (2022, September 23). Why Recreational Marijuana Isn’t On the November Ballot. Oklahoma Watch. https://oklahomawatch.org/2022/09/23/heres-the-reason-recreational-marijuana-isnt-on-the-nove mber-ballot/

[18] Nichols & Jones vs Ziriax, et al, (Supreme Court of Oklahoma 2022). https://www.oklahomafarmreport.com/okfr/rss/2022/09/03902_2022-09-21_Opinion_2022_OK_ 76_Nichols_v_Ziriax.pdf

[19] OK Election Results November 8, 2022. (2022). Okelections.gov. https://results.okelections.gov/OKER/?elecDate=20221108

[20] Walker, K. (2023, March 8). Oklahomans vote against State Question 820, say no to legalizing recreational marijuana. KOCO.

https://www.koco.com/article/oklahoma-state-question-820-fails-election-results/43245547

[21] Monies, P., & Ross, K. (2023, March 8). After SQ 820 Loss, Marijuana-Related Justice Reform Shifts to Legislature. Oklahoma Watch. https://oklahomawatch.org/2023/03/08/after-sq-820-loss-marijuana-related-justice-reform-shifts-to-legislature/

[22] Murphy, S. (2023). Oklahoma voters reject legalizing recreational marijuana. AP NEWS. https://apnews.com/article/oklahoma-recreational-marijuana-07b5aec5955d3507fa221f773a51c4 c7

[23] Ballot to Implementation: A Program’s Journey . (n.d.). Missouri Department of Health & Senior Services. https://health.mo.gov/safety/cannabis/journey.php

[24] Berry, C. (2024). The Timing of Local Elections. Center for Effective Government; University of Chicago. https://effectivegov.uchicago.edu/primers/the-timing-of-local-elections

[25] Citizens’ Initiative Referendum in California 2016, Proposition 64 – Participedia. (2015). Participedia.

https://participedia.net/case/citizens-initiative-referendum-in-california-2016-proposition-64

Notes

The first version of this case entry was written by Chelsea Fuston, a Master of Public Service candidate at the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service, and then edited. The views expressed in the entry are those of the authors, editors, or cited sources, and are not necessarily those of the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service.